A Hungarian oligarch, Russian businessmen, and a Ukrainian deputy minister. Middle-ranking civil servants, police businessmen, and state entrepreneurs. They all took part in an elaborated and well-organized scheme of bringing hazardous waste to Ukraine.

Prehistory

Documents in our possession show that two Ukrainian companies, Spetsservis (Special Service), a state enterprise of the Ministry of Interior, and NPP Osma Oil, limited liability company, imported over 23,000 tons of tars and maleic anhydride sludge from Hungary in 2001 to 2003.

Three foreign companies served as guarantors and suppliers: Geohidroterv Kft, Metratek Kft and Roscop Inc. These firms concluded deals on organizing reception and disposal of maleic anhydride residuals and neutralized tar residuals with Osma Oil, and an agreement with Spetsservis on handling the reception and utilization of tar.

It is commonly known that acid tar is hazardous waste generated during petroleum product refining by vitriol oil.

The state company Spetsservis took a lease on a land plot at Sirka, a state mining and chemical company in Novyi Rozdil, until 2005; this is where they dispatched more than 17,000 tons of tars. They managed to burn away just several tons, while the rest was allegedly converted into a modifier by mixing up with clay, earth, lime, or coal.

Spetsservis succeeded in transporting about 900 tons to Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, while the rest of the hazardous waste is still kept in the open air. As Sirka director said, the company under the Ministry of Interior keeps ignoring his demands to take the ‘goods’ away.

NPP Osma Oil, in its term, ‘concluded an agreement on receiving and unloading railroad carriages with Prykarpatbud’, a state company in Drohobych. The businessmen also brought the waste to another company, joint stock company Zahidenergo’s thermoelectric plant in Dobrotvir, to burn away. The plant was not controlled by Rinat Akhmetov yet, with 70 per cent of shares still owned by the state.

Osma Oil also ‘transformed’ its cargo into a modifier, a part of it deposited for storage via a private entrepreneur to the joint stock company Lvivpokizol; the company is still unable to get rid of the waste, though the contract expired in 2005. The waste remains at the open air in Stryi district.

The rest of Osma Oil’s cargo travelled to a metallurgic equipment factory in Seredyna Buda (joint stock company Seredinobuds’kyy Zavod Metalurhiynoho Obladnannya), Sumy region. The freight is still there, and no one owns it in fact, as the company has been closed down.

Documents that Zahidenergo shared with us indicate that the company had won a number of trials against Osma Oil, resulting in annulment of the contract on tar supplies and burning and a subsequent court order to Osma Oil to remove the waste out of the plant.

Prykarpatbud has also won a trial, something that should force Osma Oil to take away their cargo. However, we have seen with our own eyes the waste still dumped at the open air, in close proximity of living houses.

The company has not fulfilled any of courts’ decisions, as it was declared bankrupt in 2006. An insolvency receiver failed to find managers, documents, stamps, or seals of Osma Oil.

A criminal investigation was launched on importing hazardous waste to Ukraine in 2005. It was stopped in 2012, in the absence of crime components.

You won’t burn it!

- The smudge filled my lungs, my eyes tearing. It was impossible to breathe. Doctors started to diagnose pneumonia or lung inflammation in my colleagues a day after, - says Orest Venchak who worked at Sirka’s workshop of high-modulus cryolite and had a first-hand experience of the story. – We refusing burning up these matters after two days.

- There was an overwhelming unemployment in Novyi Rozdil, while this company paid immense money for unloading, - remembers Anatoliy Shalayev, a local councillor. Lots of trains arrived at  Sirka. It was a cushy number, as worker just had to work two to three hours a day. After several days of shovelling they could earn a two-months salary. However, the easy money turned into a hell after a week, with their bodies breaking out in a rash, workers’ having burning pain in the chest and a fever.

As trains with unknown cargoes kept arriving, the public revolted.

- People protested in front of the city council with posters saying No to the New Chernobyl in Novyi Rozdil in 2001. We had a great struggle then, - said Shalayev.

Spetsservis chose this community for a reason. With an experience of extracting sulphur since 1952, the town had a huge number of depleted pits suitable for burying anything.

Workers of a local brickyard (joint stock company Rozdilskyy Tsehelnyy Zavod, previously a branch of Sirka) were also exposed to the obscure freight. Zinoviy Seretnyy, the-then union leader, said that workers had to admix the matters when producing bricks. However, workers refused working and sent a joint letter to the management after having breathing problems.

- It was difficult even for me, a local councillor, to find out what kind of cargo it was and why they wanted to burn it away so quickly, - remembers Anatoliy Shalayev. – We learnt some days later that people are going through the same processes at a cement plant in Mykolaiv. Workers also revolted there.

Altogether, around 300 carriages arrived at Sirka. In a meanwhile, tars from Hungary reached another part of Lviv region.

- Workers from Dobrotvir thermoelectric plant called me and asked for help. They told me about trains with unrecognized cargoes, - recalls Dmitry Skrylnikov, a lawyer. – Workers who had unloaded the trains were having health problems.

Russian executors

- Two representatives from Hungary accompanied the cargoes, - said Orest Venchak from Sirka. – Artyushchik mostly was silent. Igor Nechaev was in charge, a short stature man with a small beard. They spoke in Russian.

As mentioned above, Spetsservis and Osma Oil had the ‘tar contracts’ with Geohidroterv Kft, Metratek Kft and Roscop Inc. On behalf of the latter one, the contracts were signed by the director. His name was Igor Nechaev.

The trade register of Hungary indicates that Igor Nechaev and Vladimir Artyushchik also co-owned METRATEK Kft at that time.

They also have come to light in Ukraine.

Nechaev is a part-owner in Inter-Invest, a joint stock company registered in Lviv. He declared Verkhnyaya Pyshma in Sverdlovskaya region, Russia, as his home town.

His colleague Artyushchik, a co-owner of Interkom-Servis joint stock company in Lviv, was also registered in the same region.

The two organizations mention wholesale trade and waste treatment among their activities.

Nechaev also has contributed to Osma Oil, as he worked as an operating technologist there some time ago.

Interestingly, Boris Nikolenko, the Spetsservis director, and his ‘Hungarian’ partners decided to alter the tars after the revolt of workers in Novyi Rozdil. This is when the ‘technical provisions for application of MG modifier in producing construction materials and asphaltic concrete’ were affixed with the seal of Inter Invest (Nechaev a co-owner) which undertook the business of mixing up tars at Sirka.

Perhaps, businessmen enjoyed full support from the management of the mining and chemical plant in Rozdil, as Aleksandra Halechko, the wife of the-then Sirka’s director Bohdan Halechko, was yet another co-owner of Inter Invest.

Nechaev and Artyushchik feature at the portal of Russian inventors as co-authors of two patents: “hydrometallurgical obtainment of zinc” and “processing silicate matters that contain colored metals”.

The list of the patent co-authors also includes Hungarian nationals: Kaplony Miklós and Imre Fazakas, who also co-owned METRATEK Kft at that time, according to Hungarian registers. It was Kaplony who signed the agreement with Osma Oil.

Transnistria, a region of Moldova

Spetsservis concluded an agreement on production supplies with Roscop Inc in the end of 2002. Boris Nikolenko sold the mixed-up tars back to Igor Nechaev. Documents referred to them as a ‘modifier’. This is also when Nechaev established a link with Transnistria, Moldova.

The tars reached a cement plant in Rybnitsa, Transnistria, as a ‘construction modifier’. We met several witnesses of the ‘chemical import’ that agreed to share their perspectives of the story.

Things started to go wrong as soon as during the unloading of the first batch, 928 tons of the newly purchased chemical. Workers had to be taken to the Rybnitsa district hospital urgently.

- It immediately caused ‘sandpaper’ in the eyes, I got dizzy and struggled to breathe in, while spots covered my body, - remembers one of the victims. – An investigator from the Ministry of Energy talked to all of us; he asked about each detail of the story and recommended to keep it in secret.

A criminal investigation was launched. Environmentalists sounded the alarm. The story received media coverage.

- We dealt with this case together with now-deceased Evgeny Berdnikov who was a court-appointed manager of Rybnitsa cement plant then, - noted Nikolay R., the-then officer of the local environmental inspectorate. – Our key achievement was that, instead of the originally planned 10,000, just 928 tons reached Rybnitsa. This was probably a trial batch. If this supply had gone without any noise to Transnistria, our region could have ended up as a final destination of any hazardous chemicals rejected by other locations.

Petroleum giant

Geohidroterv Kft provided Spetsservis and Osma Oil with a ‘technology for pre-application treatment of acid tar’. Why did not Hungarians deal with the disposal themselves? Why even three foreign companies were involved in the tar agreements? Where did the waste actually come from?

Documents that we have received indicate that MOL, a Hungarian giant and a major petroleum company of the European scale, was the primary owner of the tars.

The company’s operations across the country produced over one hundred thousand tons of acid tars and maleic anhydride sludge. Hungary had to clean up the waste in run up to the EU accession in 2004 to meet the European environmental provisions.

We have managed to get documents from Budapest police department. Sárközi Attila, a police lieutenant from a special cases directorate, examined a MOL representative in the end of 2006. Frigyes Bozsik, the then advisor of the company president, described the story as follows: “Based on instructions from Hungary’s institutions of environmental protection, the MOL leadership approved a project for acid tar deactivation. <…> Primarily, the disposal had to take place in Hungary. Trial burns were conducted at Ajka thermal power plant, Danube cement factory and limestone integrated plant. 

Amid local public protests and dissatisfaction expressed by environmental groups, a corporate body <…> announced a tender won by Geohidroterv, a Hungarian firm, to conduct the pre-treatment of the waste at base yards of MOL and later to transfer it to a Ukrainian contractor for final disposal,” – said Frigyes Bozsik to the Hungarian investigator.

So now it is clear why the tars, nicely packed into the ‘hi-tech’ cover, were brought to Ukraine and, eventually, to the Transnistrian region of Moldova. The public and environmentalists of Hungary just prevented MOL from burning them away.

It forced MOL to agree with Geohidroterv Kft to avoid reputation damages. Sajgó Zsolt, an executive director, signed agreements with Ukrainian firms on behalf of Geohidroterv Kft.

He was also questioned by the police department of Budapest. Mr Sajgó told Hungarian investigators that “Roscop company and, on its behalf, Matratek firm were Geohidroterv’s contractors in charge of transporting and deactivating the waste in Ukraine”.

Sajgó also told how Geohidroterv Kft entered the Ukrainian market: “We contacted a firm called Spetsservis in 2001 through Roscop limited liability company and a person referred to as Igor Igorevich Nechaev. The abovementioned person was in charge of looking for companies <…> to undertake obligations for receiving and disposing hazardous waste,” – noted Sajgó.

Business in Ukraine

Let us summarize what we have so far: the public in Hungary forbade MOL from burning and processing acid tars. Therefore, the petroleum titan hired Geohidroterv Kft which in its turn hired Metratek Kft and Roscop Inc. Kaplony and Nechaev, respectively, are top managers of the two firms and also co-owners of Metratek Kft. They are also co-authors of two patents in Russia.

Nechaev negotiates in Ukraine and escorts the cargoes. Together with partners, he also creates Inter Invest in Lviv for transforming the Spetsservis-purchased tars into a modifier.

Simultaneously, Nechaev works for Osma Oil and even holds an operating technologist’s ID.

Artyushchik from Russia, Nechaev’s partner, is a co-founder of Interkom Servis, a company for waste processing.

Serhiy Fedoseyenko is a director and a co-owner of both Interkom Servis and Inter Invest. His declared home address is at Parfonovichiv Street in Lviv.

Fedoseyenko’s signature approves a lot of documents on cross-border transportation and reception of cargoes by Osma Oil. We have learnt that he worked as a deputy director of this company. Osma Oil was actually created months before the tar story.

Policemen in Lviv examined Fedoseyenko within the criminal investigation and found out that he was a Russian national born in Krasnoyarsk Kray. Fedoseyenko insisted that he was just a nominal director and owner, while Nechaev was the real one. Fedoseyenko argued that he was a driver of the boss, driving him around, sealing and signing documents for Nechaev without reading them.

However, witnesses noted that Nechaev would not have problems with driving an excavator and mixing up the tars in person.

All these circumstances considered, Artyushchik, Nechaev, Fedoseyenko, and Kaplony, all of them clearly contributing to the scheme, are obviously mere executors rather than real deal makers.

American offshores

Serhiy Fedoseyenko is known to opencorporates, an open data portal, as the President of, again, Roscop Inс.

The company is registered in the USA, Wyoming State. However, a local register indicates that the company has never owned an office in the US. Roscop Inс’s declared address until 2007 was the office of Rosa Corporate Services Inc. This company is a so-called registered agent, with legal address provision being one of its purposes. According to regulations in some states, if a state-registered company is physically outside the state, it must have a legal address in the state for all pieces of mail.

Roscop Inc. ‘moved’ in 2007 to Paraklisia, a tiny town outside Lemesos, Cyprus, with a population of 2700.

Hungarian Kalman Konyves-Toth is both the secretary and director. We have managed to obtain a registration file of Roscop Inс which indicates the same person as a co-founder, too.

Konyves-Toth declared Budakeszi town, close to the Hungarian capital, as his place of residence.

Fedoseyenko and Konyves-Toth also run Unipro Development Limited company with the same address in Cyprus and registered in, once again, Wyoming.

Konyves-Toth is indicated as the head of ‘American’ companies: Silver Rain Inc, Pirit Trading Ltd. and Overseas Projects Ins, the latter sharing the offshore domicile with Roscop Inс.

Overseas Projects Ins co-owns the Hungarian Er & P Kft, registered at Olajliget Str. 38 in Budapest, several houses away from Silver Rain Inc. This is the same address as the one declared to Hungarian registers by Nechaev and Artyushchik as their place of living.

Er & P Kft changed its legal address several times. For a certain time, the company was registered at the place declared by Konyves-Toth as his home address at the registration documents of Pirit Trading Ltd. company.

This is the body which points to a more realistic candidate to be the acid tar deal-maker.

Meet Imre Fazakas, the President of Pirit Trading Ltd.

Apart from featuring at the US, Cyprian and Hungarian registers, Konyves-Toth has also once run the Slovakian IF CONSULTING, s.r.o. Fazakas is a sole owner of this Bratislava-based company.

To our current knowledge, he has also co-owned Metratek Kft for a while. After being used for implementing the ‘tar business’, Kaplony, Nechaev and Artyushchik lost their shares in Metratek Kft. That was Fazakas who bought up the 37 per cent of the company and increased his share, something that allowed him to reinforce his role in Metratek Kft. By the way, Konyves-Toth is one of authorized recipients of the company.

Run by Konyves-Toth, Unipro Development Limited even had a joint business with METRATEK Kft in Romania.

Documents of Sibiu city court indicate that these companies were creditors of the Romanian Metratek RO S.R.L.

Konyves-Toth is also an executive director of REDIS Kft owned by Fazakas and his wife.